Gander Mountain bought by Camping World

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Hokie_PhD said:
I went to the Roanoke store yesterday.
It was a zoo.
10 to 30% off.

People were lined up from the registers 1/3 of the way to the back of the store.
The thing was most of the things I wanted or needed were still cheaper at Sportsmans Warehouse if Gander had them. And instead of poor service it was poor service with people who clearly unhappy and didn't want to be there as they knew they were losing their jobs.

It was sad, A because the huge crowd was obviously a bunch of vultures and B seeing people there who in a few weeks or month or so would be out of jobs working because they had to.
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I feel exactly like you seeing those young kids working there knowing it was a losing cause. the store near me was the same as the one by you. vultures feeding on a corpse but they were outwitted by gander cause their sale prices were a joke
 
There is an evident reason they didn't make it. They were really great at angering their consumer. Went by today and saw a SR1911 Commander priced at $999.00 along with a sign roughly stating "no discounts". Nothing for the company to lose as they already accomplished that mission.
 
ih772 wrote:
They did that with many of the items in the store. People who have not been watching their prices long term thought they were getting a deal at 15% off.
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Strangely enough, they didn't do that with powder, but they did send out 15% and later 20% off coupons for everything in the store. That was nice. I've skipped the closing sale because of the hysteria that always seems to accompany store closings.
 
Aim1 wrote:
Someone on another forum said since they are closing all stores they'd increase to their max 30% off around August.
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That might be a little optimistic. I understand the store here is closing on May 19.
 
One of my coworkers just went around telling me and other guy who often discuss firearms (It's a very 2A-friendly working climate, esp for an office) that her husband was going to Gander Mtn today to check out the going out of business sale. I haven't checked it out, myself, since that location really isn't that close to me, and after reading about lackluster liquidation "sales", I'm still leaning towards not bothering.

I thought this was an interesting article:
Camping World CEO says Gander Mountain made a bad bet on guns
http://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...cle_c5d2fb17-1b28-5221-8b5c-f8c3113d837a.html

"Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis highlighted what he called a barrage of management mistakes from Gander Mountain that he referred to as “stupid.”

The blunt-spoken Lemonis — who stars in "The Profit," a CNBC reality show — said Gander Mountain overspent on inventory and expanded beyond all common sense into markets where they were cannibalizing their own customer base.

Betting big on weapons for the St. Paul, Minn.-based Gander Mountain, which billed itself as "America's Firearm Superstore," wounded the business beyond resurrection, Lemonis said.

Lemonis noted that the gun market isn’t stable and as soon as the President Barack Obama administration was succeeded by the current administration, gun sales plummeted."
 
I don't think gander ever had the customer base they thought they did. They were fighting for the same customers as every other outdoor store, gun store, hardware store, walmart, and kmart in the country. they just did not have any niche that they could claim as their own.
 
everydefense said:
One of my coworkers just went around telling me and other guy who often discuss firearms (It's a very 2A-friendly working climate, esp for an office) that her husband was going to Gander Mtn today to check out the going out of business sale. I haven't checked it out, myself, since that location really isn't that close to me, and after reading about lackluster liquidation "sales", I'm still leaning towards not bothering.

I thought this was an interesting article:
Camping World CEO says Gander Mountain made a bad bet on guns
http://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...cle_c5d2fb17-1b28-5221-8b5c-f8c3113d837a.html

"Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis highlighted what he called a barrage of management mistakes from Gander Mountain that he referred to as “stupid.”

The blunt-spoken Lemonis — who stars in "The Profit," a CNBC reality show — said Gander Mountain overspent on inventory and expanded beyond all common sense into markets where they were cannibalizing their own customer base.

Betting big on weapons for the St. Paul, Minn.-based Gander Mountain, which billed itself as "America's Firearm Superstore," wounded the business beyond resurrection, Lemonis said.

Lemonis noted that the gun market isn’t stable and as soon as the President Barack Obama administration was succeeded by the current administration, gun sales plummeted."
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To me their emphasis on firearms - and they did have a huge selection - was countered by their high pricing. Realistic pricing, competing with Academy etc would have moved inventory a lot faster.
 
I agree with RPZ.
It seems the highly competitive market, bad pricing, and large inventory was a terrible combination that kills businesses.

Had they found a way to cut their costs, make a profit on fast moving smaller margins they could have had a niche or two. Instead what they became was the place many of us went to to look at firearms then order someplace else. Great for their competitors and horrible for them.

Compounding things their stores didn't seem to have a common look and feel. Using Roanoke, Charlottesville and Fredricksburg each felt different. Now some of that is good to adjust to local preferences but too much like Gander isn't. Wegmans is a great example of a retailer who has each store unique to the others but all have a similar look and feel. Similar layouts but you know they're just different. I don't know much about Bass Pro Shops but they seem to also have a common look and feel.

Personally I'm not happy Gander is closing. Unfortunately we didn't kill them and we can't save them. So we move on and hopefully the market will adjust in ways that don't hurt us too much.
 
I never understood the Gander business model. In 2008, when it was announced that a GM was going to open a store locally, I thought great competition usually means lower prices. The first thing that made me scratch my head was the store was built literally across the street from a well established Academy. Sports & Outdoors store. The first time I was in GM was during their grand opening and I had a fist full of 10% off any item promotional coupons. Everything I was interested in, firearms, ammo, optics and related items were ridiculously priced. Even with the 10% off coupons their pricing was a lot higher than the place across the street. It never changed. Over the years the only time I usually went in the place is when I received a flyer in the mail advertising a sale and that was probably 4 -5 times a year and then I usually left empty handed. GM did occasionally have ammo in stock that I couldn't find anywhere else locally such as .45 LC and 5.7 x 28 and I found that I saved a dollar or two from on line retailers when I included shipping. I did score 4 cotton dress shirts and a couple of compression type T's a couple of weeks ago for $60 during the on going out of business sale. Hate to see folks losing their jobs though.
With the Academy moving to a new 72, 000 sq ft super store down the road the closing of GM is going to leave the area looking pretty depressed. Rumor is that a large discount liquor store is buying the Academy building. So there is some hope.
 
I suspect Gander went after the 'rich' people who didn't have sense enough to compare prices for the exact same product.

Now at Gander I do see some 60 % off now! Most of the reloading supplies are 30 percent off. Maybe soon the will actually be below Academy sports on prices! Imagine that!

Deaf
 
The closest one to me is about 40 miles south, in Palm Beach County, Florida. I really liked it when it opened, which was in 2008, I think.

Since then, I've been at a loss as to how they figure their pricing models. Some of their guns were priced barely above the "appropriate" mark, but others were outright ridiculous. I've bought but three firearms from them, of over three dozen acquired since 2008. Two were used.

I went in two days ago, largely because I was passing it on the way home from business I had in Miami. I did find fair prices on two guns that have, or recently had, my interest. The Taurus stainless PT1911 no longer has my interest simply because I've acquired two other 1911-types in recent weeks, but I would have bought it for the price GM was asking. The other, a Browning 1911-22, is priced accordingly with the prices-plus-transfer from places like Bud's and GrabaGun, but sales tax would have taken it well over.

Examples of the "ridiculous" included a Bersa Thunder for $459 (even my local Bass Pro beats this by $200!), and the Hi-Points C9 and JHP, priced at $259 and $309, respectively.

Incidentally, though the "all sales final" and "going out of business" signs abound, this store is reportedly one of the ones slated to remain open.
 
Picked up a Ruger LC9S Pro for $356 at my local GM two weeks ago. Usually around here I see them listed for $419-$429.
 
RPZ said:
To me their emphasis on firearms - and they did have a huge selection - was countered by their high pricing. Realistic pricing, competing with Academy etc would have moved inventory a lot faster.
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Bingo.
 
Our Jackson store is closing. About two weeks ago, I picked up two Leupold VX3's at about $100 less than what they go for at Midway.


Deaf Smith said:
I suspect Gander went after the 'rich' people who didn't have sense enough to compare prices for the exact same product.
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Yes, because we all know that "rich people" all got to be that way by being stupid with their money. Was that a serious comment???
 
Went to GM the other day and picked up a few things that were on sale enough to be reasonable. The checkout girl said they would be closing that store sometime around the end of August, be closed for a while, then reopen as Gander Outdoors selling most of the same stuff.
 
CraigC said:
Our Jackson store is closing. About two weeks ago, I picked up two Leupold VX3's at about $100 less than what they go for at Midway.



Yes, because we all know that "rich people" all got to be that way by being stupid with their money. Was that a serious comment???
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no but a lot stole the money and or inherited it. the world is run by rich people. do you think it could be done better? athletes and entertainers get looted of most of their money by lawyers and financial advisors. just today Portis a redskins running back lost his 43 million to thieving "advisors"
 
The two times I asked about pricing at GM, I was given the same answer, "corporate makes the prices." I replied to the manage that maybe he should speak with corporate since his ammo prices were more than the mom and pop store across the highway. He just shrugged and walked off. Guess corporate set the tone and failed.
 
Moparnut said:
The two times I asked about pricing at GM, I was given the same answer, "corporate makes the prices." I replied to the manage that maybe he should speak with corporate since his ammo prices were more than the mom and pop store across the highway. He just shrugged and walked off. Guess corporate set the tone and failed.
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it does no good to complain to someone who is at the bottom of the food chain at these big box stores. in a lot of cases they do not even know who is setting these policies`, and have never even run across anyone from corporate, except maybe a regional manager who walks though the store for an hour or two a couple times a year.
 
salt&battery said:
no but a lot stole the money and or inherited it.
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I hear that crap all the time. A lot of people seem to 'think' that but it does not make it true. Sorry but I don't buy into the class warfare nonsense or the self-righteous, self-piteous mindset behind it. People love to hate those with more than they have and they also love to make all sorts of excuses to justify their own situation. All BS about how "they're stupid with their money", they stole it or they inherited it". They couldn't have possibly earned it. Couldn't ever be that some people make better life decisions, take more chances, work harder, are more driven to succeed or are just plain better at something. No, not possible. :confused:
 
Alte Schule wrote:
Rumor is that a large discount liquor store is buying the Academy building. So there is some hope.
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Ah yes, urban renewal pioneered by a purveyor of PBR, Muscatel and Everclear.

About twenty years ago, Food Lion made their foray into North Texas - not quite a year before the news reports of Food Lion employees washing spoiled meat in bleach and repackaging it. One is now a library. Another is a city hall. Another, sitting at a formerly fashionable corner is now the repair shop for a city's parks department's heavy machinery.

Rather than just welcoming in some huckster promising growth and jobs, city governments and the taxpayers they represent might be better off passing on some of these over-leveraged, ill-managed companies that is just going to leave behind a building they'll have to seize for back taxes and try to re-purpose.

Gander Mountain did have powder and it was the only store in town that did. Now, I've got to drive nearly an hour each way to find someplace with powder. Strangely enough, I find it easier to just wait until I go visit my family and stop along the way at the Bass Pro in Little Rock to pick up odd pounds of powder since they're right on the interstate and I can be on, off, through the store and back on the road in minutes.
 
CraigC said:
I hear that crap all the time. A lot of people seem to 'think' that but it does not make it true. Sorry but I don't buy into the class warfare nonsense or the self-righteous, self-piteous mindset behind it. People love to hate those with more than they have and they also love to make all sorts of excuses to justify their own situation. All BS about how "they're stupid with their money", they stole it or they inherited it". They couldn't have possibly earned it. Couldn't ever be that some people make better life decisions, take more chances, work harder, are more driven to succeed or are just plain better at something. No, not possible. :confused:
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if hard work was the way to be rich Mexican lettuce pickers would be rich. the fallacy that hard work makes you rich was a bunch of bull by rich people to make the masses slave away. for 40 years I defended rich people but not now. hundreds of billions stolen on wall st trillions missing in the pentagon tens of billions stolen in Iraq and afghan sears and other giants looted and thrown aside
 
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